This year’s FreeFrom Food Awards brought us some amazing new undiscovered freefrom food stuffs. Amongst my highlights were coconut butter, coconut yogurts and real gluten free and dairy free pies. You can read my review FreeFrom Food Awards 2012 – my highlights.
I’m already getting excited about next year’s awards and being invited to judge again, so here is some news from Michelle of Foods Matter about next year’s awards, some new categories and everything you need to know to either enter or find out more about who won last year.
Bigger, better and back for 2013!
Just as the freefrom food sector continues its exponential growth, so do the FreeFrom Food Awards – back again, bigger and better than ever before.
This year manufacturers will battle it out in 17 different categories for the honour of using one of the award’s striking yellow winners’ logos on their products – and for the supreme honour of being awarded a year’s custody of the FAIR trophy, ‘Marble Mo’, and the title of Best Freefrom Food 2013.
Entry opens
Entry to this year’s awards opens on Monday, 17th September – by which time entry forms will have arrived in the in-boxes of nearly 500 freefrom manufacturers. This, of itself, shows how the sector has grown. For the first awards back in 2008 we could scarcely scrape 50 together!
To qualify
To qualify for the awards foods must be free of at least one, and preferably several, of those ingredients (wheat, gluten, dairy products, eggs, yeast, soya, sugar etc) associated with the many chronic health problems that plague the 21st century.
Judging
Entries will be judged by a panel of 50+ judges including chefs, freefrom cookery writers, dietitians, nutritionists, food industry professionals, freefrom bloggers, coeliacs, those living with acute food allergies and a sprinkling of ‘normal’ people, both laymen and food professionals, to benchmark the products against their non-freefrom equivalents.
Judges will assess the quality of products based on appearance, aroma, texture and flavour; whether they fulfil a really useful purpose for someone on a freefrom diet; whether they are doing something which is really difficult to do in manufacturing terms; their nutritional profile and the clarity and accuracy of their labeling.
This year we have two brand new categories….
• Children’s food
• Foods manufactured in a nut-free environment
And two greatly expanded categories:
Ready Meals now subdivided into:
• Meat meal centres
• Pizzas, pies & pasties?
• One pot meals – to include ‘world food’?
and
Food service, now divided into:
• Savoury
• Sweet.
…and new sponsors…..
We are obviously delighted to welcome back long-term awards supporters (listed alphabetically):
Adsa, Delamere Dairy, Genon Laboratories, Livwell, Mrs Crimbles, Swedish Glace and Tesco
but also very excited that this year we have no less than seven brand new category sponsors:
Amy’s Kitchen, Goodness Direct, Orgran, RSSL, Sainsbury’s, Warburtons and Yes! You Can
The schedule for 2013:
17th September – entry to Awards opens
12th December – entry to awards closes
early February – judging
late February – shortlist published
16th April – presentation of the 2013 Freefrom Awards by Antony Worral Thompson.
For more information on the awards check https://www.freefromfoodawards.co.uk/
Categories
- The Innovation Award – The innovation category is open to any product which successfully pushes the boundaries of freefrom in terms of concept, ingredients and/or manufacture. – Sponsored by Warburtons
- Plant (soya, rice, oat, nut, potato, hemp, millet, coconut etc) ‘milk’, spread, yogurt, ‘cheese’ and ice cream – Sponsored for 2013 by Sainsbury’s
- FreeFrom breakfast cereals – Sponsored for 2013 by GoodnessDirect
- FreeFrom breads and bread mixes – Sponsored for 2013 by Tesco
- Grocery Ambient – pasta, sauces, pizza bases, flour stock etc – Sponsored for 2013 by Tesco
- • NEW • FreeFrom foods manufactured for food service, a. Savoury foods, b. Sweet foods – Sponsored for 2013 by Livwell
- • NEW • Ready Meals: a. Meat meal centres (sausages, meat balls, burgers etc), b. Pizzas, pies & pasties, c. One pot meals – to include ‘world food’ – Sponsored for 2013 by Swedish Glace
- Raw foods and superfoods – Sponsored for 2013 by Delamere Dairy
- • NEW • Childrens’ food – Sponsored for 2013 by Asda
- FreeFrom savoury biscuits and snacks
- FreeFrom scones, sweet tarts, Bakewells, sweet biscuits and cookies – Sponsored for 2013 by Yes! You Can
- FreeFrom cakes, cake mixes, muffins, brownies, cup cakes, cake bars and Eccles cakes – Sponsored for 2013 by Mrs Crimbles
- FreeFrom chocolate, snack bars and petit fours – Sponsored for 2013 by Amy’s Kitchen
- FreeFrom Christmas foods – Sponsored for 2013 by Genon Laboratories
- Gluten-free beer – Sponsored for 2013 by Orgran
- • NEW • Special award – products manufactured in a nut free environment – Sponsored for 2013 by RSSL
Notes for Editors:
The FreeFrom Food Awards (https://www.freefromfoodawards.co.uk/) were started and are run by FoodsMatter – the UK’s most comprehensive resource for allergy and intolerance and all the many health conditions that are related to them.
Bless you Ruth – and look forward to having you as a judge again this year!! You will be excited to know that entries are pouring in – and lots from new companies that we have never even heard of!!! Watch this space…..